1968-75: How 'X-Rated' Became Synonymous With 'Porn'

By James Fallows

by Tony Comstock

Where moviemaking is concerned, the word, "adult" has fallen on rather
hard times, having become code for works that are sexually garish,
possibly exploitative, and amateurish in execution. But it wasn't always
that way.

Before going any further, it will probably help if
you look through the photo gallery below. It has movie poster artwork for
films starting with The Outlaw (1943) and ending with my own Marie and Jack: A Hardcore Love Story
(released 2003, rated in 2007). In between there are films that are more or less
famous, made by filmmakers who are more or less famous, and with a variety of
hopes as to how they would affect their audience. But what every single
one of these films has in common, is that they were made with the
intention that they be viewed exclusively by adults.

Please use a JavaScript-enabled device to view this slideshow

The Outlaw might be campy, but it was made to the highest
production standards of the day, and played in movie palaces across the
country. Duel in the Sun is unarguably lurid, but it was produced by
David O. Selznick, a follow-up to his triumph Gone With the Wind; something akin to James Cameron following up Titanicby producing an "adult film."

Does something feel dissonant there? If David O. Selznick produced Duel in the Sun
as an adults-only film, why does the idea of James Cameron producing an
"adult film" seem preposterous? How did we get to the point where
"adult film" became code for prurient, puerile depictions of sex?

When
the MPAA introduced the X-rating in 1968, there was no conception of it
having a pejorative meaning. In fact, if you refer back to the movie
poster for Starlet! (slide #6), a film released the same year the
MPAA's four-tiered system was introduced, you can see that the producers
actually reject the X-rating, substituting their own "XXX" in a faux
MPAA-style ratings box, along with the tag line, "So adult one X isn't
enough!"

The implication is clear. At this point in time the
X-rating is understood to simply denote Adults Only, with no suggestion
that the content of a movie carrying that rating will be especially
titillating or explicit.

The producers of Starlet! leverage the
market's understanding of what the X rating means by describing their
own offering as XXX, borrowed from the old practice of using X, XX, or
XXX to denote the strength of beer. (Leave it to the Aussies to give us XXXX beer!)

The following year sees the release ofMidnight Cowboy
with an X-rating. The film is nominated for six Academy Awards and wins
three, including Best Picture. In fact, it has been suggested that out
of concern over the impact of the depictions of drug use and sexual
content in the film on children, United Artists studio boss Arthur Krim
self-applied the X-rating to Midnight Cowboy over and above the
R-rating the MPAA planned to give it; and this is supported by the fact
that the MPAA granted an R-rating to the film, without cuts, only one
year later.

During this time it's still relatively easy to find
"sexploitation" films that are avoiding any reference to the X-rating at
all. Midnight Cowboy maybe be frank, award-winning even, but
it's hardly titillating. Sexploitation producers often favored a simple
"Adults Only" on their posters with artwork that make the content of the
film obvious.

Whatever forces and pressures caused United Artists to take Midnight Cowboy
back to the MPAA for the restoration of its R-rating in 1970, it's not
enough to dissuade Stanley Kurbrick and company from accepting the
adults-only rating for their own work. In 1971,A Clockwork Orange is released with an X-rating, and goes on to receive four Oscar nominations.

I
don't mean to suggest that the meaning of X isn't already becoming
compromised. Take another look at the POV shot for the sandwich board
for the fictional X-rated Cycle Sluts 35 seconds into the clip from Owl and the Pussycat (1970) posted yesterday.

1971 will also see the release of Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song,
with the provocative tag line "Rated X by an all-white jury." This is
by far the most cunning use of the X-rating, playing off its
increasingly dubious status as a defiant badge of honor, and generating
hype around the film.

It's also not true. The MPAA never gave Sweet Sweetback
an X-rating. The X was self-applied, with the provocative headline
placed inside a faux-ratings box. And for a time, the provocation
worked. But in 1974, caving to the same pressures that were causing
other producers to abandon the X-rating, the producers of Sweet Sweetback submitted the film to the MPAA, where it received an R.

There's
something important to take note of here. Whether it was the pre-1968
Production Code, or the MPAA's lettered content advisory system,
participation in this system has always been voluntary. Prior to 1968,
foreign films, independent films, and even some MPAA member studio films
were released without an MPAA seal. Unlike other countries, the U.S.
has never had a government-mandated, government-run, prior
restraint-based ratings system.

This is something of a bug in my butt. I've released my erotic documentaries with and without an MPAA rating. Currently, Marie and Jack
(NC-17) is our best selling title. And although our films have faced
local difficulty due to the vague definition of obscenity/pornography,
we've never had anywhere near the problems in the U.S. that we've had in
countries that have mandatory, government-run systems. Now back to our
story!

1972 saw sexploitation filmmakers both running away from and towards the X-rating. Zorro touts
itself as "The first movie ever rated Z!"--an open gown making sure
there's no misunderstanding about what that means! At the same time, Deep Throat and the The Devil in Miss Jones employ positively demure poster art and self-apply the same X logotype as Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange. Go and take another look at the poster for The Devil in Miss Jones (#11). Positive reviews from New York magazine, Newsweek, Playboy, and Variety! Welcome to porno chic!

Time for a dose of reality in the form of Climax Ecology:

Deep Throat was produced for a reported $25,000. A Clockwork Orange had a budget on the order of $2.2 million. In 1973, when A Clockwork Orange was resubmitted to the MPAA, the amount of material removed to garner an R-rating could be measured in seconds. Were Deep Throat or The Devil in Miss Jones to
be similarly reduced, the remainder would be a very short film, and not
noteworthy in any way. For all the excitement about "Porno Chic", the
most celebrated films of the era are at their core, cheaply produced,
sexually explicit "actualities" padded by not very engaging low budget
films.

And these actualities suffer from the problems that
actualities have always suffered from. Once the novelty wears off,
unless you have a particular interest in the subject matter, they're
boring.

What this means, is that for every Deep Throat or The Devil in Miss Jones
there are dozens of less notable films. For the most part, any sort of
plot, or pretense of narrative is merely employed prophylactically
against the threat of obscenity prosecution.

1973 will see Hollywood's last attempt at an X-rated film. The dour and downbeat Last Tango in Paris
will observe all the literary conventions for the exploration of
sexuality to be taken seriously, i.e. "Whilst in many places somewhat
emetic, nowhere is it aphrodisiac." (See also: US v Ulysses)

After 1973 various independent attempts are made to rehabilitate the meaning of X-rated. Emmanuelle (1974) features the tag line "X was never like this." Mannequin (1974) tries "X has finally come of age." The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) tries an "X" inscribed in a "Q", with the tag: "A quality adult film."

But
it's too little too late. No one wants the X-rating. Not Hollywood, not
art film producers, not sexploitation producers, not newspapers or
theater landlords. Slide #16 is a copy of the poster for Mannequin ("X has finally come of age") where all instances of the letter X have been inked out by hand.

Conversely,
wherever the screening of sexually explicit films is tolerated,
producers have to make it clear they're going to deliver the goods. Debbie Does Dallas (1978) has a tame poster, but the XXX mark at the bottom promises the film won't be.

Then, almost as if to show they are closing the book on this chapter, Hollywood releases Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and Cruising (1980). Both are emotionally brutal, visually coy, and rated R. The most adult themes, neutered.

Tony Comstock is a documentary filmmaker whose company, Comstock Films, specializes in erotic documentaries.Follow him on Twitter at @TonyComstock.